What a Hoot !

Last evening our book club had the most fun ! We invited the author and band leader, Bob Kuban to speak to our club about his recent book, " My Side of the Bandstand". He answered our many questions, and told us stories that didn't even make it into the book ! We thoroughly enjoyed our time with him, reliving the days in the 1960's, and the fun of the teentowns, and going dancing on the Admiral in St. Louis ! His has been a life full of interesting people, and interesting experiences. He talked about the old Club Imperial, where Ike and Tina Turner used to play. Bob often sat in on Ike's band, on the drums. We heard funny stories about Micky Dolan of the Monkees, and the horrilbe account of how his band member, Wally had been murdered. Oftentimes young performers were taken advantage of by managers, and this was the case, for a time, for Bob Kuban, and his band, also. Another funny story was about a time, when going to a huge venue that they had booked in Chicago, they noticed that the crowd all appeared to look Latino. They had inadvertently booked his band as, " L. Bob Kubano", and the entire audience thought he was Cuban ! Realizing the mixup, Bob quickly decided to trade spots with the band which was meant to lead into the show for him, because they were Latino.! Bob told many stories about playing with the St. Louis legend, Chuck Berry, too. That guy was a real character, as many in the music business are. Bob even spent 4 ore 5 years teaching at DuBourg High School, a fact that interested most of us. Lots of us are, or were, teachers, and Kathi Kalke went to Du Bourg, and remembered lots of the same nuns and priest that Bob told stories about.....

The evening was most interesting, and fun! Thanks to Bob, for spending his time here last night. We enjoyed ourselves so much the group stayed til 9:30, instead of our usual finishing time of 8:15 ! Thanks, Bob, for the MEMORIES.......